The recent flooding destruction and tragedy in the hill country of central Texas shows us that people often choose to live close to danger. Closer to home, remember when "Mount St. Helens erupted for nine hours on May 18, 1980 destroying plant and animal life in the surrounding 230 square miles of forest and killing 57 people. In this post-eruption image, Spirit Lake is buried by debris." Famously, Harry Truman refused to leave his home on Spirit Lake, and is presumably buried under the debris shown in the photo below.
Recovery from this utter destruction seemed impossible, but the next photo shows that nature is creative and resilient—and so are we humans.
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| Aerial photo of Mount St. Helens (center), with Mount Hood (in the distance, far left), Spirit Lake (on left with floating log mat), and St. Helens Lake with a little ice cover (lower left). USGS image taken by K. Spicer on June 6, 2024. Public Domain. |
Once disaster happens, what do we do? Most of us react emotionally, and then eventually respond in ways that can fix or make the situation better. So did our ancestors. Desperation can trigger creativity and enormous changes. History even shows, over and over, that war triggers improvements in both health care and in other technology, such as better weapons, mapping, communications, and also encourages new social movements, which may end up changing culture.
These changes are not always good; the Ku Klux Klan was formed after slave holders lost the civil war, and the Nazi movement grew out of Germany's defeat in the Great War, what we now call World War I. On the other hand, both wars fostered increasing literacy, the demand for better work and health standards, and the rise of social movements, known here in the US as Progressivism. [1]
Some of the life changes our ancestors made were smaller. My second-great-grandmother Sarah Maria Goosic was sitting by the fire soon after giving birth to her youngest daughter when her dress caught fire. According to one family story, when the baby's clothing also caught fire, she tossed the baby to one of the children as they ran out of the house; and the house burned down. Whether or not those dramatic details are true, she was buried with the baby, and my second-great-grandfather Elias Henry Baysinger soon married again. The oldest daughter still at home married; perhaps starting her own adult life was better then caring for her younger siblings.
Our ancestors were practical, and the more we know about their lives, the better we can understand the decisions they made which allowed each of us to exist!
It got me thinking about disasters and how we humans respond. The recent decision of Congress to move away from US support for all public media is tragic, and in my opinion, not only short-sighted, but frightening.
July 4, 1776 our founders declared: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."
Congress has decided that those in rural areas are not equal, and do not deserve the support of the rest of us. PBS and NPR will continue, but those rural radio stations will not.[2]
Our previous posts about disasters:
We would love to hear about disaster your family faced and what they did to survive, and perhaps even thrive. This will be a two- or three-part blog over the next weeks with plenty of room for you to contribute your stories. You can help make this a successful series.
Next week, July 28: The Great Fire of 1910 (also commonly referred to as the Big Blowup, the Big Burn, or the Devil's Broom fire) was a wildfire in the Inland Northwest region of the United States which burned three million acres (4,700 sq mi) in Northern Idaho and Western Montana in the summer of 1910, with extensions into Eastern Washington and Southeast British Columbia. [3]
My Stowe and Strobel families were affected by the Great Fire and many of the policy changes that were developed as a result of it. I will be presenting their stories as part of the event and invite anyone else to contribute their stories as well. Send your stories to m.strickland@skcgs.org by Friday, July 25.
Also see: The Big Burn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXmm9GxOx0Y. PBS Documentary, part of American Experience. "In the summer of 1910, hundreds of wildfires raged across the Northern Rockies. By the time it was all over, more than three million acres had burned and at least 78 firefighters were dead. It was the largest fire in American history, and it assured the future of the still-new United States Forest Service.
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